For Books and the People Who Love Them

Saturday Snapshot

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce at At Home with Books. To participate, post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.

Last week, I had some photos of the river side of the hike and bike path near my house; this week, the other side of the path and a very strange encounter.

On the other side of the path is a storage building/bike shop/junk yard — sort of spoils the view, but since I love photos of abandoned buildings and the like, I find it really fascinating. The property extends back almost half a mile along the path, and there are several spots where they have dumped couches, trucks, shopping carts and other debris:

Now, the other day I ran into the strangest parade on the path. Two shopping carts full of scrap metal were trundling up the path, piled so high that you couldn’t see the people pushing them. They were accompanied by a cute blonde boy on a bright pink tricycle:

If you click on the link, you can zoom in and get a better view.

When I got back to the car, they were unloading the scrap metal into their van, and I had to do something I really dislike doing — write down their license plate and call the police. When they finished unloading, they just shoved the shopping carts off the side of the path. Now, it’s a nice path and I take it kind of personally when people leave it a mess. I ended up spending a long time on the phone with the local police. From what I gather, they have (allegedly) been stealing the scrap metal from the bike shop! The folks at the bike shop aren’t too happy about it, and it does explain all the banged up shopping carts on their side of the fence.

You never know what you’re going to encounter when you stop out your front door…

Gosh, you were brave telling the police – I am sure most people would be much too scared of repercussions, but I guess we should all be good citizens and do what we can to stop criminals and anti-social behaviour.

Is it being judgmental to think people who work so hard gathering metal could spend that time working a real job and make more money? Probably. I’d better not judge lest I find myself in a similar situtation, but I’ll keep the path clean!Here’s Mine

Lisa

May 27, 2012 at 12:03 pm

Paulita: probably a little. The thing is that there may not be a job to be had for them — without the right skills, it can be tough. And with this, they could take their kid along, which they couldn’t do at a fast food place or retail store.

Edgar: I feel sorry for them, too, and for the little boy. I work hard for a living, and I hope to never be reduced to collecting refuse or stealing to get by.

Nise: I read an article last year that said my state led the nation in deaths from stealing construction materials. People steal copper wire and other materials from dangerous places and it can be deadly.

Susan: the main reason that I called is that they left the shopping carts shoved off on the side of the path. It’s a great place to walk, and I was pretty upset that they were leaving it a mess. I assumed they were picking up the metal from somewhere on the path, which would sort of be a good thing, cleaning the place up. I didn’t find out they were accused of stealing it until I called the police about the littering.

Wow… what a day. No excuse for making a mess, or stealing for that matter. There’s a lot of scrap metal theft going on … but for it to happen, someone has to be buying it from them, and not asking any questions in some cases.